Palm oil on the European vegetable oils market was mostly firmer on Friday in thin trade on the last trading day ahead of the Christmas break. Palm oil was mostly offered between $10 a tonne up for front positions and $2.50 for contracts for the second half of 2017, after Malaysian palm oil futures closed between nine and 23 ringgit per tonne down. Malaysian futures tracked the weaker trend in rival soyaoil, but closed well off their lows on late bargain buying.
"Prices did not matter much today on the European cash market and were mostly window dressing as most of the dealers had already wound down business ahead of the holiday season," one broker said. At 1730 GMT, CBOT soyaoil futures were between 0.04 and 0.17 cents per lb down, pressured by weaker CBOT soyabeans on the back of long liquidation by investment funds and crop-supportive rains in Argentina and southern Brazil.
EU rapeoil was offered between five and 12 euros per down from Thursday, tracking losses in rapeseed futures on the back of a brighter global oilseed supply outlook and weakness in Chicago soyaoil. Coconut oil was mostly quoted between flat and $25 a tonne down, tracking the trend in palm and soyaoil, while palmkernel oil was mostly offered between unchanged and $5 a tonne up on continuing concerns over lower production and tight arrivals into Europe.